English Astronomers: Sirs Halley, Harrison, Herschel, and Wren

Join Astronomy magazine and MWT Associates, Inc., in the United Kingdom August 6–13, 2013, to explore the paths and sites where some of the greatest scientific researchers once lived and worked.

The Palace of Westminster

David Iliff (License CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Stonehenge

Karri Stock

Years of astronomical study and research have brought the rich discoveries we share today. Return to the paths and sites where some of England's greatest scientific researchers once lived and worked. Enjoy the heritage offered in London and the surrounding towns of Bath, Cambridge, and Oxford with a special visit to Greenwich Observatory and the Maritime Museum.

The trip departs Tuesday, August 6, with flights to Heathrow, and the group will spend the remainder of the next day resting and adjusting to the new time zone. On Thursday, August 8, they will undertake a full London city tour, with a tour of the Tower of London’s rich history, the Crown Jewels, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, a cruise on the Thames, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and high tea at Harrod’s in Knightsbridge.

On Friday, August 9, Editor David J. Eicher will deliver a lecture, “Comets: Visitors from Deep Space,” at our hotel in Kensington before the group heads out to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and the National Maritime Museum. There they’ll see the prime meridian of the world, the original John Flamsteed House constructed as a research facility in 1675, and many instruments, including John Harrison’s famous marine chronometer.

Saturday, August 10, will provide guests with a free day in London to do the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Museum of London, or a hundred other things.

On Sunday, August 11, the group will hit the road to Oxford, the intellectual city and university town, where they’ll see the Bodleian Library, Christ Church College, and the Museum of the History of Science.

The following day will see them in the countryside again as they travel to Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument in Wiltshire that dates to around 3000 B.C. Having seen the spectacular stones, the group will then continue to one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Bath, England, to visit the Herschel House and Museum. Here, in 1781, William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus from his backyard garden. They’ll then tour the Roman baths, some 2,000 years old that have drawn tourists for a long time. Tea at the Roman baths will cap off the day.

The site in the White Tower, Tower of London, where a chest containing the bones of the murdered princes Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury was found in 1674, 191 years after their deaths, Tower of London, London, England, August 8, 2013.

Flamsteed House, built in 1675, the original and most important structure of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, which contains the octagon room made for astronomical observations, Greenwich, August 9, 2013.

The Rosetta Stone, granodiorite stele, ca. 196 B.C., discovered in 1799 amid material that had been used for construction at Rahid (Rosetta) in the Nile Delta, British Museum, London, England, August 10, 2013.

The Corbridge Lanx, a Roman Era silver plate depicting a shrine of the god Apollo, which was found by a 9-year-old boy in the bank of the River Tyne at Corbridge, England, near Hadrian’s Wall, in February 1735, British Museum, London, England, August 10, 2013.

The world’s first large reflecting telescope: The skilled London telescope maker James Short made this 12-foot Gregorian telescope in 1742, from the collection of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, England, August 11, 2013.